In March, PEN American Center announced it would confer the 2014 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award on Uyghur writer Ilham Tohti, who was detained in January 2014 and has since been charged with separatism. In an editorial condemning the award, the official Global Times equates Ilham Tohti’s work with recent violent acts, including the car crash near Tiananmen Square and the knife attack in the Kunming train station:
Obviously, the West is trying to pressure